Spacecraft manufacturing

In this image provided by NASA, a view of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken onboard is seen on monitors in firing room four of the Launch Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as the spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking, Sunday, May 31, 2020. The Dragon capsule arrived Sunday morning, hours after a historic liftoff from Florida. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX delivered two astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Sunday, following up a historic liftoff with an equally smooth docking in yet another first for Elon Musk’s company. With test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken poised to take over manual...

A SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020. For the first time in nearly a decade, astronauts blasted towards orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil, a first for a private company.(AP Photo/John Raoux)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A rocket ship built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company thundered away from Earth with two Americans on Saturday, ushering in a new era in commercial space travel and putting the United States back in the business of launching astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil for the first...

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, China's new large carrier rocket Long March-5B blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China's Hainan Province, May 5, 2020. The Long March-5B made its maiden flight on Tuesday, sending the trial version of China's new-generation manned spaceship and a cargo return capsule for test into space. (Tu Haichao/Xinhua via AP)

BEIJING (AP) — China plans to send four crewed space missions and the same number of cargo craft to complete work on its permanent space station within about two years, officials said after the launch of a newly designed spacecraft aboard the latest heavy-lift rocket. The announcement by the...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Virgin Galactic has received nearly 8,000 online reservations of interest since its first successful test flight into space 14 months ago, the company said Tuesday as it nears commercial operation and prepares to reopen ticket sales. Virgin Galactic already had more than 600 firm...

This illustration provided by Harvard shows data from the “Radcliffe Wave,” indicated in red, superimposed on an artist’s rendering of Milky Way galaxy. On Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020, scientists reported that this massive structure of star-forming gases was discovered in the galaxy's spiral arm closest to Earth. (Alyssa Goodman/WorldWide Telescope via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered a titanic wave of star-forming gases practically right under our noses in the Milky Way. Harvard University scientists reported Tuesday that this massive structure has been hiding out in the Milky Way galaxy's spiral arm closest to Earth. The...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Virgin Galactic says it has been contracted by the Italian air force for a suborbital research flight aboard its winged rocket ship. The company announced Wednesday that the mission will be flown as early as next year, carrying three Italian specialists who will tend to the...

BOCA CHICA VILLAGE, Texas (AP) — Elon Musk has unveiled a SpaceX spacecraft designed to carry a crew and cargo to the moon, Mars or anywhere else in the solar system and land back on Earth perpendicularly. In a livestreamed speech from SpaceX's launch facility near the southern tip of Texas, Musk...

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, gives a fist bump to Sonia Thorp, 9, of Carlos Gilbert Elementary at the beginning of an event at the state capital on Friday, May 10, 2019, in Santa Fe, N.M. Branson announced Friday that his company will begin shifting operations from California to a spaceport and specialized runway in the New Mexico desert in final preparations for commercial flights. (AP Photo/Craig Fritz)

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2019 file photo, a motorcyclist rides near the SpaceX prototype Starship hopper at the Boca Chica Beach site in Texas. SpaceX says it will build its Mars spaceship in south Texas instead of the Port of Los Angeles, dealing another blow to the local economy only days after the company announced massive layoffs. The Southern California-based company announced Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019 that test versions of its Starship and Super Heavy rocket will be assembled at its Texas launch facility in a move to streamline operations. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald via AP, File)

HAWTHORNE, Calif. (AP) — SpaceX said Wednesday that it will build test versions of its Mars spaceship in south Texas instead of the Port of Los Angeles in another blow to the local economy that comes days after the company announced massive layoffs. The decision was made to streamline operations,...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft designed to drill down into Mars' interior landed on the planet Monday after a perilous, supersonic plunge through its red skies, setting off jubilation among scientists who had waited in white-knuckle suspense for confirmation to arrive across 100...